Specialty tea information, reviews, advice, and general musings, all geared toward helping you discover the brightest supernovas in the world's tea galaxies. From Assam to Yunnan, Ali Shan to Yin Zhen… tea is life, and life is good!

Tagged: Sri Lanka

Working in the tea industry, I field questions on a wide variety of tea-related subjects on a regular basis. One thing I’ve noticed, though, is how frequently white tea crops up in these discussions. Among the four widely known tea categories (white, green, oolong, black), white tea seems to elicit more questions among the tea-drinking public than all the others combined. Hopefully this post can answer some of those questions and clear up any confusion. So, without further ado…

What, exactly, is white tea? Are there different styles?

I’m glad you asked!

White tea is very minimally processed tea, plucked from a specific part of the tea plant. (The plant in question is nearly always a varietal of the China bush, C. sinensis sinensis.) In the case of the most classic style of white tea, only the newest buds of the tea plant are picked. In other words, these particular white teas are not made from full leaves, but from the leaf shoots that have yet to unfurl into leaves.

This style of white tea is called Yin Zhen – literally, “Silver Needle”, owing to the long, narrow buds’ sharp points and whitish-grey colour. Originating in Fujian Province in southeastern China, an area that to this day still produces what most consider the world’s finest white teas, Yin Zhen has a rich and storied history. In fact, Bai Hao (“white feathery” or “white downy”) Yin Zhen is one of about twenty teas that was held in such high esteem that it was offered to Chinese emperors as a Tribute Tea, and remains today one of China’s most famous teas.

An exquisite example of a jasmine-scented Yin Zhen from Fujian

Fujian’s white teas have been cultivated for centuries – actually, millennia – and thus the master tea artisans there have had plenty of time to develop their craft. But Fujian, to the consternation of some and the joy of others, is no longer the sole home of white tea. Today, exquisite white teas are being made not just in other Chinese provinces such as Anhui, but also in nontraditional white tea areas such as India, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and even Kenya and Malawi.

The other style of white tea commonly sold in North America, known as Bai Mudan (“White Peony”), is a much newer innovation than Yin Zhen. Bai Mudan also contains some of the silver needles that comprise Yin Zhen, but the remainder of the tea is made up of the youngest open leaves (not buds) plucked from slightly lower on the tea plant.

A beautiful example of Bai Mudan. Note the presence of green leaves in addition to the buds.

How is white tea made?

White tea manufacture is definitely easier to describe than undertake. After the buds (and/or young leaves) are gathered, they are simply dried in the sun or, for the highest quality whites, air-dried in shaded pavilions. The only oxidation that occurs happens in the short time between plucking and the completion of the drying process.

So what does all this mean for the actual steeped tea?

It means white tea is one of the lightest teas in colour and body, with an exceptionally refined, delicate and complex flavour. When tasting, I find I notice nutty and peachy notes the most often, especially in the highest quality Yin Zhens, and most white teas – regardless of type – contain an appealingly understated natural sweetness.

When steeping white teas, whether Yin Zhen or Bai Mudan, I suggest using about 1.5 – 2 grams of dry leaf per 250 millilitre (8 oz.) cup, with a water temperature of 75 – 80 degrees Celsius (165 – 175 degrees Fahrenheit). Steeping times can vary significantly depending on the particular tea and the style in which it’s steeped, so it’s best to experiment to find what suits your taste, but in Western-style steeping I generally infuse my Yin Zhen around four minutes, and my Bai Mudan three.

I recommend drinking white teas between late morning and late afternoon/early evening, ideally on their own so their subtle charms can be best appreciated, although I find Bai Mudan can be a great tea to pair with light sweets for dessert, as well.

Especially here in Vancouver, this is a commonly asked question, and is simultaneously one of the easiest and one of the most difficult to answer.

Firstly, all tea – regardless of type – will contain beneficial antioxidants. That’s about as much as virtually anyone in the tea industry is allowed to say without running afoul of government agencies. What varies is which antioxidants, and how much. White tea is thought to contain slightly more antioxidants than other types of tea because it is arguably the least processed of all teas.

Where the issue becomes tricky is ascribing specific health benefits to these antioxidants. The truth is that while there is a growing body of scientific evidence to attest to the health-promoting effects of the antioxidants found in tea, it can’t be conclusively stated that white tea (or any other) can reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, or other chronic conditions.

My advice? Drink tea because you enjoy it, not just because of any potential health benefits. Tea is a wonderful beverage to drink as part of a much broader healthy living strategy, but its positive health effects, however they may be perceived, should be seen as the proverbial icing on the cake – not the cake itself.

First Flush Darjeeling White Tea

I’ve heard that white tea has less caffeine than other teas. Is this right?

In short… NO!

I’m asked this question – or a variant thereof – more often than any other about white tea, and arguably no single issue causes more confusion among tea drinkers.

It must be said that the caffeine content of any given tea (not just white tea) is exceedingly difficult to gauge without actually scientifcally testing that particular batch of tea. There are a great deal of variables that affect how much caffeine a cup of a given tea will contain. Some of these can be controlled by the tea drinker – for example, steeping time or quantity of tea leaves used – but many cannot. These uncontrollable factors include the varietal of tea bush from which the tea is made; the manner in which the tea is processed (or not); and even the age of the leaves plucked to make the tea, to name just a few.

With that out of the way, a few generalizations can be made, and one of those is that white tea, on average, has more caffeine than other types of tea. As Beatrice Hohenegger notes in Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West:

“White teas… are commonly believed to be very low in caffeine. The opposite is true if we consider that young leaves contain more caffeine than old ones, and white teas are made up mostly of young leaves and buds.”

Ultimately, the exact amount of caffeine in a given cup of white tea is academic. Suffice it to say that if you are strictly avoiding caffeine, white tea probably isn’t for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a delicious, light-bodied little indulgence, you owe it to yourself to brew up a cup or three of a fine Yin Zhen.
Thank you for reading, and happy drinking!!

Welcome to delano teas!

For this site’s auspicious first entry, it only seems appropriate to start with the basics. While this information may be a given to some, if you’re new to the world of specialty tea, this is the foundation on which you’ll develop your knowledge and your palate.

So…

What is tea?

Without getting too scientific, tea in its most correct sense is ONLY the beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Virtually all the tea you’ll encounter will be made from the original tea plant, Camellia sinensis sinensis; its Indian cousin, Camellia sinensis assamica; or, more accurately, one of the thousands of unique varietals created from one or both of these.

What isn’t tea, then?

Essentially any plant or herb that can be infused in a manner similar to tea, but is not made from the Camellia sinensis plant, is not technically ‘tea’, though popular usage often suggests otherwise. I prefer to call these non-teas tisanes, as the term encompasses everything not made from the tea plant, but ‘herbals’ or ‘infusions’ are frequently used, if not always completely accurate, terms as well.

Some of the more common tisanes include those made from rooibos, yerba mate, camomile, and mint, to name just a few.

While this site won’t focus on tisanes, I personally don’t mind them and may even write about them on occasion (especially if I receive requests! Hint, hint!). Stay tuned!

Where did tea originate? How did it spread?

No one knows exactly when tea was first consumed – some legends claim it was nearly 5,000 years ago – but there is little dispute the first teas originated in Yunnan Province in China (Camellia sinensis means, literally, ‘Chinese camellia’). Wild-growing tea trees are indigenous to the area where Yunnan borders Burma (Myanmar) and Laos, and at some point over the centuries, the local indigenous peoples created the first beverages from their leaves.

From Yunnan, awareness of tea spread to the rest of China and then to other parts of Asia with the growth of overland trading and marine-based shipping. It was not until roughly 400 years ago, though, that people in the West found out about tea, when Dutch and Portuguese traders began shipping tea from China’s coastal Fujian Province back home to Europe. Tea and tea drinking spread quickly through much of the continent, and eventually it was brought to the New World when the Dutch imported it to their colony of New Amsterdam, before the English took over the colony and renamed it New York.

The English, though the last Europeans to discover tea, arguably embraced it the most fervently. They embaced it so much, in fact, that by the end of the 18th century they were buying such a great quantity from China they were having difficulty paying the Chinese. To counter this, they began to trade Indian opium into China. This enraged the Chinese and eventually led to the Opium Wars of 1839-1842. While the English were ultimately victorious, gaining the colony of Hong Kong and free trading rights within China, they knew they could not continue to rely solely on China to satisfy their demand for tea.

This led to another of the most important developments in tea history: the founding of India’s tea industry. While the indigenous population of what is today the state of Assam had long known of the existence of a wild tea plant, it was not until the English recognized its potential in the mid-1800s that they began to cultivate it on a large scale in India and Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to reduce their dependence on Chinese tea. It had the desired effect, and led to many innovations in the tea world, some of which are still in use today.

Where is tea grown today?

With the explosion in tea’s popularity worldwide, the number of countries and regions growing tea is steadily increasing. New tea frontiers aside, though, the overwhelming majority of the world’s best tea still comes from Asia. China, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, Nepal, and increasingly, Vietnam grow the majority of the teas we’ll be talking about on this site. Other notable Asian producers include Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Iran, though high-quality teas from these countries are less abundant than the first set above.

Tea is also grown on a large scale in Africa, specifically Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Rwanda, and a handful of other countries. Most of this tea is still destined for lower-grade mass market teabags, but there is a small but growing number of high-quality teas being manufactured by select gardens and artisanal teasmiths throughout the region.

In addition to Asia and Africa, gardens are now being established (and in some cases, already producing) in places like Australia, New Zealand, the United States – especially Hawaii – and even Canada (I’m not kidding!) While it will take a while for these and other nontraditional tea growing areas to gain traction in the tea world, it’s going to be an exciting journey, and one I hope to at least somewhat chronicle for you on this site!

What are the main types of tea?

We will talk about this in much further detail in subsequent entries, as tea processing is a massive topic, but in general there are six categories of tea, all of which are manufactured from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis. The six classes are:

White – Yellow – Green – Oolong – Black – Post-fermented/”dark”

Yellow teas are still quite difficult to find, as is pu-erh in some places (though thankfully, it’s relatively abundant here in Vancouver), but no matter where you’re reading this, white, green, oolong, and black teas should be available to some degree (and of course, there’s always online!)

The easiest way to imagine how different types of tea come to be is to visualize what happens when you bite into an apple and set it down. The browning that occurs after a short while, scientifically known as enzymatic oxidation, is essentially what causes the differences between and among types of tea. (Many more variables go into creating specific teas, but more on that later.)

You’ll often hear the term ‘fermentation’ used instead of ‘oxidation’, though the latter is vastly more correct unless you’re talking about pu-erh, the one tea you’ll likely encounter that is actually fermented (like wine) and that gets better with age (also like wine!). For this reason, unless the subject is pu-erh, I will always use the term ‘oxidation’ on this site.

At one end of the spectrum, white and green teas are the least oxidized. Occupying the middle of the spectrum, oolong – the largest category of teas – is partially oxidized tea, ranging from teas similar in colour to green teas to more oxidized teas one could easily mistake for black. At the other end of the spectrum is black tea, which ranges from mostly to completely oxidized. Yellow and post-fermented teas don’t necessarily fit neatly into the spectrum, so we’ll set aside discussing those for the moment.

In subsequent posts we’ll explore each of these categories of tea in much greater detail. The world of tea is incredibly vast, far more than we can imagine, and it could take a lifetime and then some to fully grasp it. So let’s get started, shall we? 🙂 Any comments, suggestions, or questions about this entry, or about tea in general, are more than welcome!